Seaside Storms

I am so excited to finally be contributing batts to the Phat box again!  It has been nearly a year since I have had time to do more than stitch markers.  I love how these batts turned out!  I have 9 full size batts that will be available in my shop but when they are gone they are gone...  I am out of pretty much everything needed to make these batts.

Not only is it the first time in a while that I have sent in bitty batts, its the second ever time I have dyed my own fibre.  These batts are 50% fake cashmere and 15% firestar all dyed by me to look like this picture that I found during some random web surfing:

I had so much fun with this month's theme I am already half way through carding my bitty batts for next month.  I can't give away the theme but they are going to be quite sparkly!

Orange you glad I made more hexiphats?

Ok, lame title I know... but I just had to do it.  I finished up my batch of orange hexiphats.  They were a lot of fun to knit as always.  These little honeycombs are just so addictive. 

The goldish orange hexiphats at the 2 and 6 o'clock positions are from a Wandering Wool sample called Topaz.  It was a great sample to knit up.  It made a nice soft solid fabric.  The subtle variations are very nice.

The bright hexiphat in the middle of the flower is from a sample called Diwali Rangoli dyed by Fiber Charmer.  It was such a fun colour to knit up but the yarn is a lighter fingering weight so the stitches at this gauge aren't quite as defined.

The pretty little puff in the 7 or 8 o'clock position is Melt Away Mints dyed by Shetibo Presents - Knotty Ewe.  The colours are so exactly the little mints I eat every Christmas.  I didn't love the yarn base though, it held up nicely to the stitches but it was awfully splitty.

Nouveau Pumpkins

Here is my next installment of hexiphats:

The puff on the left is from Wandering Wool.  The colourway is Jack-o'-lantern.  It is the "Rock Creek Sock" base and lovely to work with, great stitch definition, nice and soft.

The puff on the right is Nouveau Sunrise by Creature Comfort Craftworks.  This isn't my first hexiphat from CCC and I love their yarns.  I was not disappointed, the colourway was fun with colours that ranged from very pale to very dark.  

And since I can't bear to waste anything.  I made a puff out of the leftovers. A bit of Nouveau on the edges and pumpkin in the middle!

Blue Willow

I have finished the last hexiphats of my blue installment.  Blue Willow by The Lazy Lamb Shop.  It has some lovely soft striping.

I used up the Blue Willow leftovers with some of the leftovers from yesterday's hexiphats.  I really love making puffs that use more than one colour of yarn.

Experimenting with Increases

Today I tried using a different increase that I saw mentioned on Ravelry somewhere...  Instead of KFB you yarn over and then knit through the back on the next row.


The puff on the left is the KFB as written in the pattern.  The right puff is with the YO.  I think I prefer the KFB.

The lighter blue hexiphat is made with subtley sparkly yarn from Allicats Designs and was lovely to work with.  It has fabulous stitch definition.  The darker yarn is from A Million Stars and has such pretty colour variegation.

Stripes

I love the way these two hexiphats stripe.


The Ulysses Butterfly yarn by Neurotic Knitterz is amazing. I love it's big stripes! I love it so much I have tracked down a few samples from generous Phatties online and am working on arranging a couple custom skeins from NK even though her shop is closed while she is going to school.

Today's second hexiphat is made from Creature Comfort Craftworks' Bollywood sample. It has some fabulous striping as well. I especially love how some of the stripes are longer and others shorter. It's also sparkly. Sparkly puffs are my favorite puffs.

The Copper Corgi

These hexiphats were a lot of fun to knit.  I think this sample was from the Wine Country themed Phat box.  It is dyed by The Copper Corgi.  The colour is so dark and saturated.  It was also a huge sample.  I knitted nearly 4 hexiphats, I added in some leftover bits from previous hexis and had to improvise a cast off that used less yarn to be able to finish the 4th one.

Eternal Love

Today's hexiphat installment is brought to you by Nea of Lanitium ex Machina. This yarn is so pretty. I also have an art batt made by Nea in this same colour scheme.

The batt is one of 2 pounds worth of batts and roving from Lanitium ex Machina that I plan on spinning during the Tour de Fleece.

This sample was huge, I got nearly 3 puffs from it. I used up some scraps from one of yesterday's puffs as well.

New Love: Sparkly Hexiphats

I have a few more finished hexipuffs.  Actaully I decided last night that I should call the ones made from Phat Fiber samples Hexiphats.  :)   This first one is my most favorite so far:

It is called 'Danae' and is from Out of Step Dyeworks. Gold sparkle with these rich colours all in cute little hexipuffs format. Love.

















Then I knitted this puff from yarn by The Alpaca Legacy. It's a little bigger than my other puffs. I hope it will fit into the blanket.

Last but not least is this beautiful 'Black Pekoe and Cherry' yarn from Lampyridae. The red is so deep and rich.

Bee Keeping - The beginning.

I have been so busy lately, family, school, work, and fibre.  I have had a baby, started an etsy shop full of squishy batts handy locking stitch markers and handspun art yarns and bought a house.  I went from just me to a family of 5! There has just been no time for blogging.  I keep thinking about it though.  So I am giving in to the blog bug and am going to have another go at sharing my musings with the world!

Recently I embarked on a new project.  Many of you will know of what I speak: The Beekeeper's Quilt.  It is self-published by Tiny Owl Knits.  This is the most addictive pattern I have ever started.  I don't think I have gotten more than 5 hours sleep per night since I cast on my first hexipuff.


Another exciting part of my life is Phat Fiber.  It is this great box of samples that you can buy once per month.  "Buy" makes it sound so simple.  It is more of a mad race to buy one of a limited number of boxes, it takes a very dedicated type of fibre stalker to successfully purchase one of these boxes.  This box is stuffed full with yarn and fibre and notions made by independent fibre artists all over the world.  It gives you a chance to sample their wares, to touch and pet and smell the fibre before you buy it.  Phat Fiber is more than that, it is a family, it is a group of amazing people that I feel privileged to be a part of.  Every month I send a batch of samples off into the world and every month a wonderful box makes its way to my door step.  


This box contains many samples, a lot of them are fingering weight, fingering weight just happens to be perfect for making hexipuffs.  Mine are more hexiflats since I am not stuffing them but I like the word hexipuff better.  So I am going to share my Phat sample hexi puff journey with you.  I might throw in the odd post about my shop, my family, the mushroom colony on my front lawn... but for now we will focus on hexipuffs because that is really all that this addiction will allow me to do.


This is my first batch of Phat hexipuffs:

It was made last week.  These hexipuffs were so much fun to knit.  The colour gradient in the yarn was mesmerizing.  The yarn is from Play At Life Fiber Arts.  I liked it so much I actually sent her a message practically begging for more little baby sockie makis but alas, there were none to be had.  


This is my next batch of Phat hexipuffs:

The amazing green puffs at the top are from Shenanigan's Yarns, then the bronze age and bornite (orange/blue/purple) puffs on the left side are from Fiber Charmer.  I liked the bornite so much I couldn't bear to waste it and used the little bit of leftovers to make a stripe of it on the bottom middle puff.  The green puff in the middle is from The Dyeing Arts and the colourful puff to its right is from Color Bug Yarns.  Finally, that leaves the lovely shiny navy grey puffs on the bottom row from Sky Loom Weavers.

Now that I have caught you up on my hexipuffing I am going to get back to knitting...

Cali